In the survey, Kantar also found that football remains the world's most popular sport, with 1.6 billion followers globally, reinforcing the results of a recent FIFA survey which produced a similar figure.

"Manchester United has built on a tradition of iconic players, iconic teams and iconic achievements – Beckham, Busby, Benfica '68. Now our games are broadcast to 1.15 billion households globally, to an audience of over four billion a year," Manchester United's commercial director, Richard Arnold said.

"This survey shows that our family of followers is going from strength to strength."